A Montreal hospital said Saturday that a patient who had showed symptoms consistent with the often deadly Ebola virus had tested negative for the virus, according to a press release from the hospital.

Dr. Karl Weiss, director of infectious diseases at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, said that since the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a few months ago, all Quebec hospitals have put in place “some very stringent protocols.”

“We have no choice but to implement our protocol because if it’s a real case, imagine if you don’t put in place all the measures,” Weiss told the Star.

These protocols were put in place for the first time at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital two weeks ago for another patient, Weiss added, and the results were negative.

A second patient, described as “a relatively young man,” was placed in isolation at the same hospital Saturday. The patient lives in Quebec but recently went to Guinea to visit his family, said Weiss.

“Yesterday he started being sick with fever and general flu-like symptoms,” Weiss said. “He came to the emergency room, and as soon as he came the protocol was implemented . . . but the patient is not severely sick, far from that.”

Weiss said the test samples were sent to the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, and other patients at the hospital weren’t at risk.

Earlier this month a patient at a hospital in Brampton, Ont. was also placed in isolation over fear the person had contracted the virus, but ended up testing negative.

Weiss said that patients who have recently travelled to one of the four countries where Ebola is an issue — Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria — have their temperatures checked immediately upon arriving at the hospital.

“If they do have a fever they are put into isolation right away, and this will start the protocols in terms of infection control,” said Weiss. “With only supportive treatment and about a 60 per cent mortality rate . . . better to be safe than sorry.”

With files from The Canadian Press

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